


Adorable

by Lunafeather



Category: Good Girls (TV)
Genre: Episode Tag: S02E11 Hunting Season, F/M, I had a lot of feelings about Beth washing Rio's cash at a laundromat, Kind of angsty, Prompt Fill, UST
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-22
Updated: 2019-05-22
Packaged: 2020-03-09 09:14:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18913972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunafeather/pseuds/Lunafeather
Summary: There’s a niggling feeling in the back of her mind that says this may not be the best idea, but she smothers it, letting that anger drown it. If Rio can be a petty asshole, so can she. And she is going to revel in it as much as he seems to.





	Adorable

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt Fill for an anon on Tumblr.

She pulls in next to his caddy in the parking lot, turning off her car and watching him as he lounges casually on a park bench. She rarely gets the opportunity to just observe him this way, open and unaware -- he almost always gets the jump on her. He’s fiddling around on his phone, cobalt blue beanie tugged low around his ears, collar of his thick black jacket turned up against the wind.

 

Even from here, he is unreasonably, frustratingly handsome. Beth leans back against her seat, head pressed into the headrest, her eyes narrowed and glaring as she greedily drinks him in.

 

They have barely spoken since she broke into his apartment and he humiliated her -- just thinking about that now makes her stomach twist. She had played right into his cruel, scheming hands... She lays in bed at night, her mind running over the memory like a record player dragging across the grooves of a worn and well loved record. The sharp angles of his jaw, the scruff of his beard, the deep, heavy set of his half lidded eyes as he watched her -- even the memory of him in that moment mesmerizes her. She’d be lying if she said she didn’t miss him, if she said she didn’t find herself longing for the warm, curling scent of him and the tingle she feels all the way to her toes when he’s nearby. That she doesn’t miss the taste of him and the way he stutters out her name when she touches him _just so…_

 

Well.

 

She did what she had to do, for her kids. And she would do it again.

 

Now, though… now she has a feeling that she may have underestimated just where she fits into his life and his heart. Before the game of 20 questions and the subsequent rejection, before the loads and loads and _loads_ of fake cash to fix Ruby and Annie’s fuck up, before the bits and pieces of body shipped neatly via FedEx envelope… Before all of that, she would have bet money that she meant nothing to him, that yes, he liked her and enjoyed her company but that she was mostly a form of entertainment, a fun open wound to poke and prod and get a rise out of, a body to ogle and maybe sometimes fondle. After seeing him with that woman, that tiny, younger, _gorgeous_ woman, that woman who was so very much what she had always imagined Rio’s type to be and most definitely the opposite of herself -- she didn’t think he could ever reciprocate her feelings, however complicated and messy and murky they are.

 

And so she had let herself be selfish, had let herself indulge in his body -- truly believed he was doing the same, ignored how soft and quiet and intimate he became, how gentle and agonizingly sweet. She never would have gone through with the sex if she had known what she knows now, never would have brought him home if she had known that raw vulnerability would greet her. And maybe she wouldn’t have tried to convince herself that she was imagining it, that it was wishful thinking, because that’s how it had felt -- it had felt desperate and cloying and pathetic to hope that maybe she meant something to him.

 

She wonders how differently things would have gone if she had had the courage to look at his face when she ended things. She wonders what she would have seen there, and if she would have been able to go through with it.

 

She has a sneaking suspicion about the answer to that.

 

Maybe she wouldn’t do it again, even for her kids.

 

She groans at that.

 

How god damn selfish can she be?

 

Her mind flashes again to those few minutes in his loft where he was a breath away, leaning into her space and luring her closer. He must know the spell he weaves, the way he enchants her. She’s never felt like this before -- not in her heart and not in her body. Maybe she had let herself believe they could kiss and make up, that he would forget about the vast, painful gulf between them and give in to that urge to be near her, to be wrapped up in her.

 

He had quashed that right quick, hadn’t he?

 

Anger flares up in her chest, licking at her ribs and her sternum. How dare he? She would never do that, draw him in with the promise of bliss only to yank it cruelly back at the last second and purposely humiliate him! She would never go out of her way to hurt him, to tear him down, to strike pain rough and sharp through his heart the way he seemed to be inclined to doing to her. It came so easily to him, throwing insults and denials and finalities like knives, his aim keen.

 

That fury drives her up and out of her seat, yanking her seat belt off and shoving through the car door. She stalks to the trunk and whips it open, her gloved fingers finding the handle of the duffle bag waiting for her. With a grunt, she heaves it up and over her shoulder, teetering dangerously for a second before regaining her balance and marching determinedly in Rio’s direction.

 

There’s a niggling feeling in the back of her mind that says this may not be the best idea, but she smothers it, letting that anger drown it. If Rio can be a petty asshole, so can she. And she is going to revel in it as much as he seems to.

 

His eyebrow arches when she comes into view; his condescending smirk only fans the flames slowly turning her bones to ash. He watches her curiously as she sways again with the weight of the duffle bag, amused and _be_ mused.

 

“Bout time,” he snarks, seemingly unimpressed. She doesn't miss the way his eyes sweep quickly up and down her body.

 

“Oh, I’m sorry, did you have somewhere else to be?”

 

He licks at his lower lip. “Yeah, maybe I did.”

 

“It seems my sarcasm didn’t come through -- I really don’t give a fuck.”

 

Rio’s eyebrows hit his hairline as he tips his chin up at her. “Damn, mama. Wake up on the wrong side of the bed today?”

 

Beth rolls her eyes before unceremoniously slinging the bag over her shoulder and into his lap. She takes a deep satisfaction in his pain filled grunt as it collides with his crotch. “Here’s your cash. Washed and ready to go,” she says sweetly, smile too big.

 

“What the--” Long fingers yank the zipper open. She keeps her gaze fixed on his downturned face, fighting hard not to laugh -- the haughty joy leaks into the corners of her mouth anyway. He freezes when he realizes what he’s seeing. When he looks up, his face is a carefully controlled mask, and she knows he’s fighting very hard to keep his cool. “That’s just adorable, Elizabeth.”

 

Beth shrugs. “I think we’re at the point in this endeavor where I don’t have to wait around while you count, right? I’ve got some errands to run.”

 

Rio’s jaw rocks forward, then back, and he presses his tongue against his teeth as he stares at her. “See--” He chokes off the sentence, his adam’s apple bobbing as he swallows. He glances away before meeting her eye again. “I dunno what kinda game you think you playin’, but I ain’t got time for it.”

 

Her smile fades. “Oh, I am dead serious.”

 

“Really.”

 

“Yeah. Really. I washed your damn cash, and I’m dropping it with you. Same as always. Isn’t this what you wanted?”

 

He barks out a laugh, but it’s hollow and humorless. That laugh used to scare her, but now it just sets her on edge and raises her hackles. She feels the fight coming and braces for it.

 

“You better damn well be jokin’ or--”

 

“Or what? You’ll fire me?”

 

They stare hard at each other, the words hanging in the air between them like a bomb waiting to detonate.

 

“Yeah, you’d like that, wouldn’t you?” There’s a sharpness to his voice that catches her off guard, a raggedness.

 

She doesn’t answer.

 

After a long, thick moment, he says, “Listen very carefully to me, Elizabeth.” The words are slow, like he’s speaking to a not-particularly-bright child. “I’ma need you to get your shit together, cause I don’t got patience for your bull these days, okay? I got enough problems as it is.” The implication is clear.

 

That rage surges again. “Excuse me? _You’ve_ got problems?”

 

“Don’t even start with your whining--”

 

“Oh, fuck you!” Beth ignores the glares from a nearby gaggle of parents. “You know what, you _do_ have problems. Sending me--” her voice drops to a whisper, “ _body parts_ in the mail? What is wrong with you?” Rio stares up at her, like a petulant child being reprimanded. “I wanted out, I wanted it to be over. I wanted my kids back! And you didn’t give a shit. You want to blackmail me into working for you, into owing you? Fine! But you’ll take your damn money however I see fit to deliver it!”

 

He waits as she pants, arching an eyebrow. “You done?”

 

“No!” She lurches forward, hands seizing the sides of the duffle bag. “Next time you get your feelings hurt, act like a goddamn adult and have a conversation about it instead of retaliating like a 2 year old! You are a grown man, this is not tit for tat. If you have a problem with me, say something! Don’t purposely go out of your way to hurt me! How does that fix anything?”

 

“You know… you got a real inflated ego if you think you matter enough to me to hurt me. If you got _your_ feelings hurt, maybe you’re just a little too sensitive, yeah?”

 

She can’t help the shock of involuntary pain that fractures her chest. _He’s just lashing out again because you hit a nerve._ The thought doesn’t make her feel much better. Still, she leans into his space until they are nose to nose.

 

“That is _exactly_ what I am talking about. Grow up, Rio.”

 

They hang like that, staring each other down, Beth stifling the tightness in her throat and refusing to back down first. She tries desperately to ignore the way her body instantly reacts to being this close to him, the way she wants to just bury her face in his neck, the way her stomach churns with butterflies. She could move an inch and have her mouth pressed to his, and it really shouldn't turn her on, the way they bicker and argue, the nasty way they have of communicating -- though she uses that word lightly.

 

When he doesn’t move, seemingly impassive, she growls, “You are a _child!_ ” and savagely flicks the edge of the duffle bag, overturning it and dumping heaps upon heaps of quarters into Rio’s lap.

 

He jerks back from her in surprise, cursing up a storm as the coins swell into a mound on his legs before cascading down, pinging across the bench and the concrete and rolling jollily away. Beth spins on her heel and stomps away, violently chucking the still emptying duffel bag into the grass and ignoring his incensed shout of _Elizabeth!_

 

An hour or so later, she takes a sip of her bourbon, regaling the girls with the events of the afternoon.

 

Annie squawks with laughter while Ruby just tsks.

 

“Damn, Beth! Gang friend is so gonna get revenge for this.” Annie grabs the cheez-it box from Beth and buries her hand inside to grab at a few crackers. “I would have paid good money to see the look on his face when you poured those quarters into his lap, though.”

 

Ruby shakes her head from the other end of the couch. “You do know that dumping $600 worth of quarters on this guy was just as childish as the shit he was pulling, right?”

 

Annie glares at her. “Why are you ruining all the fun?”

 

“I’m just telling it like it is, girl.”

 

Beth nibbles on a cracker before she says, “I mean, I know you’re right, but he also kind of deserved it.”

 

Ruby laughs. “I’m not arguing with you there.”

 

“Still, though… he is definitely gonna get revenge.” Beth taps a cheez-it against her lips. “And I have a feeling it’s gonna be bad.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: #75 That's Just Adorable.
> 
> Come yell with me about this show and this pairing! [My Tumblr.](https://lunafeather.tumblr.com)


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